Ping-pong racket.



No. 7|6,464. Patented Dec. 23, I902.

L. H. NELSON. PING-PONG BASKET.

(Applicatiun filed Sept. 15, 1902) (No Model.)

lTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LYMAN H. NELSON, OF PORTLAND, MAINE.

PiNG-PONG RACKET.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 716,464, dated December 23, 1902.

Application filed $eptember 15, 1902. Serial No. 123,363. (No model.)

To ctZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, LYMAN H. NELSON, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Portland, Cumberland county, State of Maine, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ping-Pong Rackets, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a racket such as is used in playing the game of ping-pong or table-tennis. Hitherto these rackets have commonly been made either of a solid piece of wood with a smooth surface or they have been formed of a frame covered with a vellum or strung with gut. The wooden rackets have come into most common use; but they are more or less objectionable for several reasons. The playing-surface is too smooth and not of the right texture to put the necessary cut on the smooth and hard celluloid balls, and the hard wood of the racket is apt to scar and scratch the table when a highly-polished table is used.

My invention consists of a racket made up of several thicknesses of paper or fiberboard cemented together, with a thickened portion for the handle. A racket made up in this manner has many ad vantages over those hitherto in use. It is, in the first place, very light and may be played with for a long time without tiring the hand. Its surface being of paper presents exactly the right texture to get the necessary friction with the ball for the purpose of making the cutting strokes and causing the ball to revolve in its flight from the racket. A further advantage is that the racket is slightly flexible and for this reason better adapted to playing the ball, which flies more readily from a slightly-yielding surface.

The racket being made of comparatively soft material will not scar the most highlypolished table, however hard the latter may be struck, and, finally, it may be more cheaply made than any racket yet put upon the market.

The material may be ordinary pulp-board of considerable thickness or may be paper or fiber board, or I may use numerous thicknesses of ordinary paper glued or cemented together to give the required stiffness.

I illustrate the invention by means of the accompanying drawings, in Which Figure 1 is a front view of a racket made according to my invention, and Fig. 2 is an edge or side view.

A represents the body or playing portion of the racket, and B is the handle.

The body A is made of a series of layers a, which are connected together and are also provided with the projections a, to which are connected the strips or sheets I) of material which, together with projections a, form the handle 13 of the racket. These strips 1) may be of any number of layers, so as to form a handle of the desired thickness, and said strips are each provided with the enlarged ends I), which brace the base of the contactsurface of the racket to prevent same from twisting, thus forming reinforcing-strips for the handle and base of the body.

The body portion, as here shown, is made of two pieces of fiber-board of the size of the entire racket glued or otherwise cemented together, and the handle portion is formed of two additional pieces, one cemented on each side to make the required thickness for the handle, which need not be very thick.

The thickened handle may be made of wood or other material, glued or otherwise fastened on each side of the fiber-board, if desired.

I claim 1. The herein-described ping-pong racket, composed of a series of sheets of slightlyflexible material forming the handle and racket, and strips of similar material placed upon opposite sides of the handle and the full length thereof.

2. The herein-described ping-pong racket, composed of several pieces of pulp-board of the same thickness connected together to form the entire racket, and a series of reinforcing-strips of a similar material the same length as the handle connected upon opposite sides of the handle.

September, 1902.

LYMAN H. NELSON.

Witnesses: I

S. W. BATES, L. M. GODFREY.

Signed at Portland, Maine, this 12th day 

